Engineering for Flood Resilience: Integrating Stormwater, Land Use and Infrastructure Planning

Flood risk is increasingly becoming one of the most significant challenges facing urban infrastructure systems. Climate change, urban intensification, ageing drainage networks, and development within flood-prone areas are placing growing pressure on existing infrastructure and exposing communities to more frequent and severe flooding events. While traditional approaches have often focused on increasing drainage capacity, experience has shown that flood resilience depends on a far broader understanding of how land use, stormwater systems, infrastructure planning, and community development interact.

Effective flood management requires an integrated approach that extends beyond hydraulic design. Engineers, planners, asset managers, and infrastructure owners must consider catchment behaviour, overland flow paths, development controls, floodplain management, infrastructure resilience, and long-term adaptation strategies. Decisions made during planning and development can have significant consequences for flood risk, network performance, and community resilience for decades to come.

This session examines how flood resilience can be strengthened through the integration of stormwater management, land-use planning, and infrastructure decision-making. Participants will explore the relationship between development patterns, drainage performance, flood risk assessment, and infrastructure planning, while gaining practical insight into the strategies being used to build more resilient communities and infrastructure systems. The webinar draws on lessons from hydraulic modelling, flood risk management, infrastructure planning, and asset management practice.

Key Topics Discussed:

• Evolving flood risks in urban environments
• Climate change and infrastructure resilience
• Stormwater network performance and capacity limitations
• Land-use planning and floodplain management
• Hydraulic modelling and flood risk assessment
• Overland flow paths and flood-sensitive development
• Water-sensitive urban design and green infrastructure
• Integrating infrastructure planning with flood management
• Asset management considerations for flood resilience
• Community adaptation and risk reduction strategies
• Governance, policy, and regulatory influences
• Lessons from recent flood events and recovery programmes